Today, April the 6th, is Lord Sabre Day, Andrew Weatherall’s birthday- and today he turns 50. The top picture shows him djing in the early 90s. I’m fairly certain it was taken at Cream during the Sabres Of Paradise tour (note gear borrowed off Sandals).

Two decades later…

Having followed him since his earliest vinyl adventures, I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the last twenty odd years tracking down, buying, listening to, and more recently surfing for, his music. I think he’s one of British music’s genuine mavericks, always interesting, always on the move and always worth listening to- on wax and in print. Always looking forward but with the past in view. His remixes from the last few years are among the very best stuff he’s done and The Asphodells album is a contender for album of the year so far. This is a bumper selection of fairly randomly chosen Weatherall tracks from my hard drive to celebrate his half century…

Any brief internet/magazine biography always links Weatherall and Screamadelica. When the Scream put their collective boot on the monitor and released Give Out But Don’t Give Up many felt that it was a backwards step. It was. But proving you can make a dub purse out a sow’s ear, Weatherall reworked their Stonesisms into a heady twelve minute dub excursion that goes a little Screamadelica-esque in the final few minutes of this Sabres remix of Jailbird.

Similarly you get all the references to the artists he remixed in the early 90s. This one took that main keyboard refrain from James’ second best known song and sent a thousand indie kids sprawling across the dancefloor. Confusingly there are two different names for this remix but they are I think the same mix.

Lino Squares was one of many aliases and pseudonyms Weatherall used during the late 90s, outside Two Lone Swordsmen. As Lino Squares he put out a six track vinyl pack of minimal, electro-oriented music. These days it’s more linocuts than Lino Squares.

The first piece of vinyl to bear the Weatherall name as a solo artist was an e.p. entitled The Bullet Catcher’s Apprentice- the lead track Feathers was sold to sell cars, the Ford Tipp-Ex according to Weatherall. This song featured vocals from Weatherall and lists many things that are possible- but how one should never make disco without a Stratocaster.

And he followed it with a wonderful solo album- A Pox On the Pioneers- a couple of years ago, drawing on glam, rockabilly, and post-punk. This was a dub of Fail We May, Sail We Must (from the Japanese version of the lp).

Two years ago he remixed Clock Opera. I’m not sure I know much about Clock opera but remember reading a so-so review of their album. In fact I’m not even sure I’ve listened to the original track despite owning the 12″. But the Weatherall remix is a gem, one of many remix gems from recent times. This is a superb piece of electronic music, crisp beats, lovely synths and a fantastic repeated bit where everything goes all wonky.

In the last few years there have been a shedful of podcasts and mixes on the internet. This one, for Fact Magazine, remains one of the best, joining the dots over the course of an hour between (amongst others) CircleSquare, Dum Dum Dum, Bert Weedon, Wayne Walker, The Monks, Stockholm Monsters, Mogwai, Durutti Column, Dennis Wilson and The Mighty Wah! Proper stuff this.

Weatherall and Fairplay’s Asphodells lp, Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust, has been sent out to the remixers. This one sees their cover version of AR Kane’s A Love From Outer Space get remixed by Mugwump- spaced out.

That should be enough to keep you going. I could have doubled the size of this post and still only scratched the surface. I don’t what a luxuriantly bearded, Edwardian clothes-wearing, heavily tattooed, dancefloor and leftfield legend does for his 50th birthday but I for one will be raising a glass in his honour tonight, somewhere in a caravan in north Yorkshire. Happy 50th birthday sir.

…is the Google translation from Japanese into English from the record label- Beatink- that is plugging Andrew Weatherall’s forthcoming album. Other translation gems; Rudy techno Banchou eternal, new electronics unit progression, rudy techno continue to rock the floor forever.

As well as drinking tea at festivals Andrew Weatherall and current musical partner Timothy J Fairplay (The Asphodells) have completed their first album and are releasing it in Japan on the 3rd of November. It’s called Ruled By Passion, Destroyed By Lust. Here’s hoping we get a similar release date. The lucky Japanese market gets two bonus tracks. Read all about it and get more amusing translations here, as well as a listen only sneak at the song A Love From Outer Space (Version 2), The Asphodells cover of an AR Kane song, who by happy coincidence have a compilation out soon also. This is from an AR Kane remix e.p.

Andrew Weatherall djing recently in a pod on the London Eye, promoted by the makers of some sticky fluid. Can’t imagine there was much room for dancing. No track listing and I haven’t listened to it all but the opening ten minutes sound great, dreamy, krauty synth stuff.

Edit- also includes Weatherall’s own cover of AR Kane’s A Love From Outer Space and what I think is his remix of The Horrors.

Pump Up The Volume by MARRS is surely one of the greatest singles ever made and a number one single to boot. From 1987 it was a one-off collaboration between members of AR Kane and Colourbox, both Bagging Area favourites, with extra input from djs Dave Dorrell and CJ Mackintosh. Does it sound twenty four years old? I’ve lost track of how things should sound after that amount of time. Made up mainly of samples it still shakes dancefloors- well, the floor in my front room anyway. I don’t know if anyone would play it in a proper club anymore. This is the B-side Anitina (The First Time I See She Dance), made up of an AR Kane track with Colourbox programming the drum machine.

Hugely influential, much loved by Melody Maker, dream-pop/shoegaze/acid house/whatever, from AR Kane, who made two albums, 69 and i, and a load of singles. A Love From Outer Space was their poppiest moment. AR Kane were also half of MARRS, whose Pump Up The Volume was a number 1 smash and one of the first British entirely sample-made records.